Battle of the Beast

 

Well, I well and truly unleshed the Beast at this one.

The day started with the alarm going of at 0330, made some brecky and jumped in the car for a 3.5hr drive down to Caloola Farm Canberra. Had one close call with a kangaroo on the way through Neriga and some thick fog. (Hoping to get there on time to register).

Made it there safe and sound. Got my self registered and had a look around. Checking out the pre race info on the beast, the course didn't look to hard. It looked like a reasonable climb out for 30kms, and roll back to the finish with a couple of little climbs on the way back. at the race breif the challenge was laid down for some one to climb the last climb all the way, I was thinking that it didnt look that bad on the course map. (Holy Crap was I wrong).

The ride out did have a steady climb all the way out but, there were so many pinch climbs around the 200m to 300m long, that avarage grad was about 15%. What was nice were all the creek crossing, the water was great and they only got better as the day got hotter. 

The battle of the beast was a pursuit type race, so the beast got a 5min head start with the rest of the feild sent out to try and catch him. with groups ever 2 mins after that. So they asked for the guys that thought that they could catch the beast to step up to the line. What the hell, I'll give it a go and see how long I could stay with the big gun. That was about 1.6km and I was off the back, and riding by my self for about the next 20kms.

 

 

I made it to the mid check point and was thinking that it would bet a bit easier for the return journy. (still worried about the big hill though). It was still very tough but the pinch climbs weren't as long or steep, until. At about the 60km mark coming down a really steep hill, I had a glance across the valley and saw a fire trail going out the other side. OH Shit hope we aren't going up there. Got to the bottom of the decent couple of little turns, bit of a climb around the corner, and you guessed it the fire trail out of the valley. I rode about 50m which was at about 15% then got of for the walk up. The GPS got up to about 25%  I think.

Once over the hell hill, it was all down hill for the rest of the race, about 8km. In this final run had some good fun with a couple of goannas on the track. Rocked in to the event centre a bit after 1300. Totally wrecked, in to the waiting arms of a cold beer.

 

Thanks to Beast Worx, great event see you next year.

 

Check them out http://beast-worx.com/?page_id=384

While you are there make a donation the Soldier On charity